Opposition parties have set precedent, says Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru, Apr 24 (DHNS): Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday expressed his disappointment over the Opposition parties demanding that the bill on the division of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike be referred to a select committee.

Speaking to the media, he said never in the history of the legislature had such a precedent been set – of a bill passed by the Legislative Assembly being referred to a select committee. “In my 32 years of political career, never have I seen a bill passed by the assembly referred to a select committee in the council,” he said.

Siddaramaiah said previously there had been instances of bills being defeated and sent back to the Assembly, indicating that the government was “okay” with the bill being defeated in the Council, if the members were not in favour of the trifurcation of the Palike. The chief minister justified that dividing the BBMP was a sound logic in order to provide better administration for Bengaluru. “Bengaluru will not lose its status even if it is split,” the chief minister said. The division of BBMP is justified as the wards have not been divided scientifically. Also, across the globe, there is no instance of a city with more than one crore population having a single municipal corporation.Be it Mumbai or Kolkata, the corporations in these cities have been divided. Delhi has three corporations. Even in London there are 32 boroughs,” he said.

‘Not done in haste’

Later, on the floor of the council, Siddaramaiah claimed that the proposal to bifurcate or trifurcate the BBMP was not decided in haste. “The decision to divide the BBMP for administrative purposes was proposed as the BJP regime, wherein the then urban development minister Suresh Kumar and former chief minister Jagadish Shettar had spoken about it. We also felt Bengaluru required a better and transparent administration,” he said.

Arguments over CM's knowledge of Kannada

In the midst of arguments over pros and cons of dividing the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike BBMP), question marks were raised over understanding of Kannada language by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and BJP MLCs.

In a heated and sarcastic exchange of words between Opposition leader K S Eshwarappa and Siddaramaiah, a debate arose over the Kannada word for “restructuring” (Punar Rachane) of BBMP which was used by the BJP in their 2013 election manifesto.

While Siddaramaiah claimed that the word restructuring was nothing more than dividing BBMP, the BJP said it was streamlining of administration.

“Go back to school and learn Kannada. Restructuring is nothing more than dividing. None of you know Kannada,” said a sarcastic Siddaramaiah. The chief minister went to such an extent to rub-in the word, that he reiterated the word not less than 10 to 12 times in a sarcastic manner.

Hitting back at the chief minister, a sarcastic BJP MLC Ashwathnarayan, later said: “We used the word restructuring and not redividing (Punar Vingadane). For a leader from Mysuru, confusion in Kannada words and its meanings was not expected.”